Coachella homeless encampment residents face uncertain future, again

Bryan Hensley and Carene Riale are reunited with their dogs after being evicted from their homeless encampment.
The Desert Sun

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Sander Gonzalez, right, holds a sign reading "Lies, lies nothing but lies" as he and others are moved out of City Center Motel in Indio, Calif., Tuesday, May 29, 2018.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)Buy Photo

While everyone around them was enjoying the Memorial Day weekend with barbecues and pool parties, the homeless residents of City Center Motel in Indio were packing up their belongings once again.

Residents had bags of clothes piled high, carts filled with belongings and paperwork loosely organized, but no plan of where to go next.

Riverside County Housing Authority provided about 40 people 28-day motel stays to bridge the gap to permanent housing after the California Department of Transportation razed their Coachella homeless encampment along Highway 86 near Dillon Road. In early May, the state evicted about 60 people total who had been living in makeshift shelters on the vacant lot for the past few years, citing safety, blight and trespassing concerns.

But the 28-day clock stopped ticking at 11 a.m. Tuesday, only eight people staying at the motel were placed in permanent housing. The motel parking lot was chaotic as residents struggled to figure out where to go next. They blamed the lack of communication and organization on the social service agencies tasked with helping them.

Victor Beecham from Path of Life Ministries talks with Ben Aldridge at City Center Motel in Indio, Calif., Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Aldridge and nearly 40 others have been housed at the hotel since being evicted from land in Coachella a month ago.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

Michael Brown, 48, said he had no idea where he would sleep Tuesday night, he thought he might end up on a vacant lot in the desert again. Brown said he and his girlfriend lost most of their possessions after Caltrans evicted them from the encampment. He said he thought the move would be a chance to start over, with assistance from social services.

Brown said residents were told they would have a temporary roof over their head until they were placed in housing. Others were told they would transition to another motel at the end of their current 28-day stay. But on Tuesday morning there were few answers and much confusion.

“It was a false sense of hope,” Brown said. “We had hopes of a new life. Now we are even worse than before.”

Carene Riale said she felt frustrated and didn’t understand why the county spent money to place them in a motel if they were just going to end up homeless again. Riale said many residents were willing to go through the housing application process but needed help doing so. Some residents were disabled, illiterate or spoke little English, making it challenging to navigate their long to-do lists.

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Mike Brown carries belongings through the parking lot of City Center Motel in Indio, Calif., Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Brown and nearly 40 others have been housed at the hotel since being evicted from land in Coachella a month ago.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

Bryan Hensley, Riale’s boyfriend, said he didn’t see social workers meeting with the homeless residents until their final week at the motel. As a result, residents were rushed to obtain the proper documents needed to be placed in housing. By Tuesday evening, Hensley said he was giving up hope of ever finding a permanent place to live. He said he and Riale were probably headed “back to the streets.”

They were told they didn't qualify for an extended hotel voucher and would have to leave their four dogs behind if they wanted to stay at the rescue mission. The couple said that wasn't an option.

Angie Puerta, 57, had been trying to stay organized, with resumes and lists of housing options tucked into a file folder. But she said she still was waiting to hear if a suitable apartment was available. The original unit she was offered was far from her new job, and without transportation, she would have had to pick between a job or a home.

“Everyone is depressed and discouraged,” Puerta said. “The lack of communication between us and housing officials has left us in limbo. We don’t know what will happen (on Tuesday). The uncertainty is horrible. We might be homeless again.”

Puerta was mostly packed by Monday morning and had a large tent ready just in case she and her friends ended up without a roof over their heads again.

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Carene Riale packs up her belongings at City Center Motel in Indio, Calif., Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Riale has been living in a motel room with her boyfriend and their four dogs since they were evicted from land in Coachella by Caltrans.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

Yvette Ramirez, 43, sat at a table in Puerta’s motel room Monday afternoon talking about the events of the past month, her face creased with worry and exhaustion. Ramirez had diligently worked to complete applications for housing, but she still faced an uncertain future. Though she toured available units with a worker from Path of Life the previous week, she still needed to pass a credit check to get a lease.

Ramirez said she, like many of the residents, couldn't meet that requirement – which is one reason she ended up homeless in the first place.

Aside from the credit problem, she said the apartments she viewed with social workers were unsafe and unsanitary.

“The apartment in Indio was awful,” she said. “It smelled like urine, it was very dirty, feces from cockroaches were on the counters and in the cabinets, the bathtub had roach eggs and it was right across the street from a park that is well-known for gang and criminal activity. Robert (her boyfriend) and I didn’t feel it was an environment in which we would be safe. We felt safer in the desert.”

Damien O’Farrell, Path of Life director, said most of the residents he was working with didn’t accept any of the units offered, which he said was part of the struggle. Although he said the residents were shown "nice" apartments in good neighborhoods, their credit, income and addiction histories were problematic.

“Landlords aren’t necessarily all that open to renting to someone who doesn’t have income,” O’Farrell said. “If it were up to us, we would certainly forgive those things, but we don’t have control of the credit bureau or a landlord’s decision on who they lease to.”

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Bryan Hensley leaves the room he has been sharing with his girlfriend at City Center Motel in Indio, Calif., Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Hensley and nearly 40 others have been housed at the hotel since being evicted from land in Coachella a month ago.(Photo: Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun)

In addition to Path of Life, the county and Step Up also provided housing assistance. Benito Silva was one of the lucky residents who was matched to an apartment in Indio. Silva, a veteran, was an exception because he had the required paperwork and identification. Others, who didn’t even have birth certificates, were still trudging through the process. Silva said he appreciated the work the county did, adding that his unit has nice amenities.

While some residents claim they didn't see workers show up to help until the last minute, O’Farrell said his team, as well as the other participating organizations, have been working hard to mitigate the situation from the start. He said his staff was out at the homeless encampment many times prior to the eviction and has been at the motel every day since.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, the organizations – including Path of Life, Step Up, Riverside County Housing Authority and others – had an emergency meeting to discuss how to remedy the situation, at least temporarily. By the end of the day Tuesday, workers found another motel to house some residents on a week-by-week basis. Others agreed to stay at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission. A few decided to try their luck again on the streets. But all were offered some sort of temporary shelter and were in the pipeline for permanent housing, said Jill Kowalski, Riverside County homeless program manager.

"It's not an ideal situation but we are doing our best," Kowalski said. "This is a very rushed process and we are expediting this in a way we don't usually do. We need to get a very large group of people into housing. This is not a typical situation for us and a lot of people are working many hours to try to get people in this group into housing."

But Kowalski said the housing process is an arduous one no matter what. It includes piles of paperwork, finding landlords who are willing to forgive a residents' past, physically showing people units and finding a location that works for the resident. While the day seemed chaotic and rushed, Kowalski said they weren't able to know where beds or rooms would be available until the day of as shelters and motels typically fill up over the holiday weekend.

Tom Cox, CVRM program director, said he felt the county should have approved more money for housing vouchers when the homeless encampment first came to light. He said it was unreasonable to think that everyone could be placed in permanent housing in such a short time and more prior planning was needed.

Desert Sun reporter Nicole Hayden covers the cities of La Quinta, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. She can be reached at Nicole.Hayden@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4623. Follow her on Twitter @nicoleandpig.